How to Climb the R Learning Curve Without Falling Off the Cliff

Advice from Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced R Users

Ann Emery, Tony Fujs, Will Fenn

R Learning curve is steep

What to expect

  1. (Very) Quick overview of R
  2. Live demo using a toy example
  3. Advice to get started with R

What is R?

Programming language

What is R?

Open Source

What is R?

Very, VERY, active community of users

What is R?

Powerful & flexible

What is R?

Great dataviz capacities

Demo

Data analysis workflow

Demo

Toy example

Data set

Demo

Recode variables

Demo

Summary statistics

Demo

Visualization

Demo

Summary paragraph

Demo

Publish the results

Demo

Another data set

Demo

Some action…

8 steps to get started!

1. Download & install R

8 steps to get started!

2. Download & install R studio

8 steps to get started!

3. Become familiar with the R environment

8 steps to get started!

4. Learn to install packages

8 steps to get started!

5. Take a free on-line class

8 steps to get started!

6. Choose a project and stick with it!

8 steps to get started!

7. Minimize frustation: Use others' work

8 steps to get started!

8. Minimize frustation by… expecting some frustation along the way

As a conclusion: A few take aways

  • Learning process can be frustrating at time… but it's worth it!!

  • Easy to make your work transparent and scalable

  • R is free + R is powerful = R is awesome!

Thank you!!

Thank you!!